Sunday, May 30, 2010

Ooopps I almost forgot about this. Stupid holiday weekend, has me all turned upside down. I got 20 minutes to get it posted so lets get a going yo!

DRGABE'S MINIATURESWe all know how hard camo can be and we all hate people that can make camo look not only good but easy to do. Well here is another guy to hate! Really some of the best camo work I'm ever seen. Not only that but this guy is a DOCTOR! Damnit now I really have no excuse to not paint my minis. A big shout out to Big Papa JJ of Dicerolla for the heads up on this guy!

Cadian 77th Expeditionary ForceAwesome looking Guard is one thing... but a comprehensive tutorial on how to do em too? How does this not have more followers? Good luck trying to get them to look as good though :)

Anything But OnesIt can't be all paint and primer all the time. Sometimes content is enough to turn heads and this blogs "History of..." feature is really great. Go have a look fool, schools in sucka!

Fantasy GamesThis blog has a cool feature... a nice list to guide you through getting your army painted! Go and join em and get your name up there.... hell I should do it too.

40K Battle Report BlogI like battle reports, you like battle reports... how about a blog that has nearly nothing but battle reports? Nuff said yo!

Whew, still got 10 minutes to spare. Now I have to go show Opie-Wan the might of Cadia! See ya next sunday and until then...

Can't wait for tomorrow. Me , Opie-Wan and JubieX are gonna spend the holiday doing what we do best... GAME!!!

Talisman, Magic The Gathering, painting and of course 40k will all be crammed into over 24 hours of gaming!!! (with the obligatory pass out time once Opie-Wan has drunk himself silly).

Junk food, booze, soda, movies with boobies... it's gonna be high school all over again!

However at 3 pm on Monday we will pause for the National Moment of Silence. According to one news station, "At 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day, May 31, Americans are asked to pause, reflect, and observe the Moment, and commit to Live Honoring America’s Fallen."

After the moment were gonna toast those fallen. Because the only reason we're gaming in a free country this Memorial Day is because someones son or daughter decided to serve and bled freedom into this country. Which is the greatest country on earth!

I hope yours is as fun and as meaningful as ours is gonna be.

GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.!!!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

See when your married you have to do the 'ol give and take. Since I just dropped umm about five hundred bucks on minis (and I'm in no way finished... see the post below) I figured I'd be cool and see "Sex and the City 2" with my wife.

"Wow, you'll really see it with me?"

"Sure baby. You were cool about the minis, your always cool about it. I can be cool too and cancel our tickets to go see Star Wars in concert and go with you to see if Carrie cheats on Mr. Big with Aden."

She then kissed me, "Your so sweet baby"... (this part has been blurred out by the censor).

So there I am, in the middle of the movie and it's torturous. I'll I will say is the opening "wedding" scene had my mouth just drop open.

"You owe me." I whispered.

Then the horrifing happened. Liza Minnelli comes onto the screen and starts dancing... in sexy pantyhose! She old yo! Ewww. I couldn't look away. The train wreck had my jaw on the floor.

My wife, chuckling, leans over and says "Your right... I do owe you. We'll go to the game store after."

So I'm all set to go get more miniatures when all of a sudden my stomach starts doing back flips in my gut. I go to the bathroom and puke my 40 dollar popcorn all over a toilet seat that is littered with gang art. '

Needless to say I didn't make it to the game store tonight.

So why am I telling you this? What's the moral of this story?

Well here it is...

If you go see "Sex and the City 2" you will be horrified, get more miniatures and then throw up.

Anything for miniatures! No price is to high, no chick flick too lame, no...

Friday, May 28, 2010

The game store here offers a 10% discount to Veterans and I figured tonight was a good night to head over and see about squeezing a 1000 points out of my wallet.

I decided to go with Imperial Fists. But not just any 'ol Imperial Fists army. I wanted a calvary army. I mean really? How often do you see an entire bike army of Space Marines? Now how often do you see Imperial Fists? With the way The Army Painter works on yellow with their Soft Tone Dip it seems I'll have a rare army in appearance and composition.

Hey... everyone wants to be an individual right?

It only seem fitting that a Space Marine calvary unit be yellow. I've become really interested in the American Civil War over the past year or so and the calvary of both Union and Confederate forces was devastating. Not to mention that for some reason both used the color yellow to identify their calvary regiments. Now I would love to do a historical civil war game however my two battle buddies JubieX and Opie-Wan really don't share the same interest. The Imperial Fists offer me a unique opportunity to do a unique army that to me meshes with my passion for the Civil War. It's a win, win.

So here is what I bought... I'll get the army list up soon.Now this box set is awesome. I'm not doing Ravenguard so I'm stuck with a bunch of Dark Angels bitz however the six bikes alone if bought seperate is 90 bucks... which is the cost of the battalion boxed set. If you compare it I got an attack bike, land speeder and bitz for free. Wonder when GW will put an end to this.

Since I was a few bikes over I grabbed a command squad for later when I take these Marines beyond 1000 points.

Now as long as these guys don't act like Col. Stewarts calvary during the battle of Gettysburg I think I'll do just fine.

Monday, May 24, 2010

You are a d8: You are the true adventurer! Dragons rescued, princesses slayed, and all that business while O Fortuna plays in the background. Your social calender is crammed with heroic deeds, and you've personally saved the world from ultimate destruction at least twice. You are reliable, perhaps a bit predictable, but overall a shining example of what happens when courage meets determination.

So what are you???

Big thanks to Imaginary Lives for this one. Looks like we have more than just dip in common :)

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Another week gone, five more blogs that you need to be followin or lets face it, your just not hip.

I know you want to be hip and you can start by cruising over to these awesome blogs!

IMAGINARY LIVESAnother self proclaimed slow painter and a guy dedicated to the dip. Oh you know he gets the top slot just for that. What's an added bonus is he is a Minion! Pack that with some nice 15mm swag and I'm in hot anticipation to see his 40K work. It's obvious we aint seen nothin yet from this guy!

BIG BOX OF ELDARTheir just aren't enough Eldar blogs out there. Maybe it's because the little buggers are hard as hell to get to look right. Well this blog doesn't have that problem. Awesome, friggin awesome paint jobs. The Bonesinger post is especially impressive.

A TAU BEGINNINGOut of all the 40k armies out there players really seem to shine at coming up with cool color schemes for the Tau and this blog is no exception. The white, gray and orange armor is quite sharp and well painted. Hell, anyone that paints white has instant props in my book. Nice work!

SONS OF PROSPEROIt's cool when blogs step out of just showcasing what armies they got and actually show you how to do stuff. Tutorials are always cool and this guy has quite an extensive post on how to do custom basing for your minis. What's even cooler is he shows you how to make really good looking bases. Thanks bro!

ADEPTUS ALCOHOLICUSI've said it once, I'll say it again... I love this paint scheme for Tyranids. I love it even more when they look as sharp as this guy makes em look. Oh yeah, and the blog name is priceless.

If you want your blog featured here or you know of one that should be just send me an email at the25mmwarrior@gmail.com and we'll get em the exposure they deserve.

Ok, well maybe for you it can but I have gamer ADD like a mother @!#&%#.

Chances are if you read my blog (or any other in the From The Warp family for that matter) than you are a GAMER. It doesn't matter what the game, table top, RPG, video games, hell even reindeer games would be cool if I knew just what reindeer games were.

In this case it's video games.

A new Diablo clone just came out not to long ago called Torch Light and i'm in love! Imagine Diablo meets World Of Warcraft. Now take out all the BS from both games, wrap it up in a nice, stylistic package and market it for twenty bucks and you have a game that is a welcome distraction from the drudgery that our hobby can be at certain times. Everything from the art to game play is top notch along with a nice unique world and storyline.

What's really cool about this game is the commitment each player can put into it. With four different difficulty settings (from casual to friggin insane) this game offers either passive entertainment or a real challenge. What I personnally love about Torch Light is that you can play it for 10 minute or 10 hours and walk away. Say your painting and your minis are pissing you off or your just not feeling the mojo of your hobby at that moment. You can go over and fire up Torch Light, play it for a bit, leave the game at any moment and go back to painting. With the game constantly saving your progress you can come and go as you please.

So if your in a rut with painting or your just looking for a cool game to screw with, Torch Light will guide you to hours of dungeon crawling fun.

Friday, May 21, 2010

If anyone remembers I used to have Pac-Man up on my blog so people could play it. Alas someone changed something and it didn't fit right anymore and looked really weird so I had to take it down *sniff*

However to celebrate Google has the game up on their main search page. Just wait a sec and the classic music springs to life and you too can guide Pac-Man through the dangers of, well... you'll see.

Monday, May 17, 2010

I was stoked when I discovered that The Army Painter came out with a bright yellow primer. Finally my dreams of doing either an Iyanden or Imperial Fists army seemed within reach. Yellow armies have always looked sharp to me. In a game where most things are dark or mid tone colors, seeing something bright is a welcome change. Not to mention almost no one ever does yellow because of the complexity. Out of all the colors a painter can do, yellow seems to be the one that is the most difficult. I've tried it and it never comes out looking right. Sure there are tutorials out there (done by master painters... who have artistic tallent... of which I don't) but who wants to spend that kind of time painting a mini?

However the primer is not without its own tricks as you journey towards the reality of having a good painted yellow army.

Take a look at the Marine on the left. Now look at the one on the right. See the difference? The one of the left was just an initial one coat spray. I about had a fit. The damned mini looked like it had a green tint. Where was the bright yellow? I continued to spray, two, three coats until I got the effect on the right. Then it came to me. The gray plastic of the mini was showing through!

Crap!

If I continue this way I'll be spending a small fortune on Army Painter primer trying to get the solid, bright yellow tone that the lid claimed was in the bottle. This way is problematic anyway because you really run the risk of caking the primer on the mini and burying the detail. I had figured since the primer is "highly pigmented" one coat would have been enough. All the other Army Painter primers I had used in the past didn't run into this problem.

It became clear I need to help this primer out a bit to unlock the color that was hidden in the can.

I first gave the mini a light undercoat of white primer, then I hit it with the yellow. I got a little nervous as I had never undercoated a mini twice to get the right look but it worked like a damn charm.

Using the Soft Tone dip I took a Marine and applied the splash on technique (which is nothing more than painting the dip on instead of having the mini go for a swim in it) just to see what it would look like.

It didn't disappoint...The shading is perfect and doesn't darken up the yellow to the point of making it look dirty. The mini isn't nearly as bright as a lot of the Games Workshop pics of yellow figures but this does give it a more realistic look.

I then got brave and pulled out an Eldar to see if this stuff would bring out Craftworld Iyanden...

It did.This mini really attested to the quickness The Army Painter provides. The whole job took twenty minutes. I even tried to highlight the mini with a Bleached Bone drybrush before splashing on the dip. I don't know if it came out well in the pics but as you can see the product allows anyone to field a respectable looking Iyanden force with extremely minimal effort.

This exceeded my expectations. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do. Since I want to do all the armies in 40k but not with all the same paint schemes I'm going to have to make a hard choice between Iyanden or the Imperial Fists.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Some great blogs out there this week and plenty that have next to no one keeping an eye on them. Join me as we try to change that for these five that have caught my attention this week...

KenStorm 989's Work In ProgressThink what you will about 40K Radio but it's no argument that Freebootaz are some of the most dedicated and talented gamers 40K has and this blog is no exception. This blog has answered the call to do the May Motivational Challenge and has some impressive looking Eldar and Orks models up along with a magnet tutorial. So get on over there and cheer this guy on and maybe as you take a peek you'll find some motivation to get some painting done yourselves.

Oh and P.S.

JOIN "FROM THE WARP" KENNY!

The Lost Chapter: Dino Riders In Spaaaaace!What do you get when you take the Emperor's finest and mix em up with dinosaurs? You get one of the most original and well painted armies that's what! I think you'll agree with me that the four followers this blog has does not do this awesome work justice! I particularly like the SM shoulder knee pads on the something-a-sauraus.

Colorcrayon's Workshop and ExhibitIt was bound to happen. This blog has taken Imperial Guard and meshed them with the movie "Aliens." There is even a "Aliens" mission book this guy has made if you want to join him in taking 40K into the "Aliens" movies. Really very well done!

40kneophyteThis blog has one of the nicest layouts I've seen yet. Combine that with some nice painted Orks and you got a blog you should be checking out. Oh and the printable terrain mat is pretty cool too.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Sup kiddies; the infamous Opiewan at your service, drinking all the wine and hitting on the bridesmaids.

So y'all have gotten a look at 25mm's shiny new Skynet wana-bees, as well as heard how he plans on keep us Gaussing (ug... I apologize for that one). So I figured I would follow suit, show off some of my works in progress (their all works in progress, more on that later), and expound on how the good will be greater.

HQ: XV8 Shas'el w/ Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting array, HW Multi Tracker, (97 points)-Running a pretty standard Fireknife here, and as a Monat as well (mostly because I don't have any more XV8's) That said he can toss a couple of high power shots from decent range, threatening light vehicles and small groups of heavy infantry. Might toss a Shield drone on him, as he is vulnerable to high Str weapons

Troops 2: Kroot Carnivores: 9 Kroot, 1 Shaper, 2 Kroot Hounds (103 points)-Again, flanking objective grabbers. As much as I would love to infiltrate 'em in some woods and see what bounces off with a +2 cover save... we don't have any woods. Gotta do something about that.

Fast Attack 1: Pathfinder Team: 4 Shas'la w/ Pulse carbines (whoopde$#!+), Markerlight (48 points)-Did I mention I love markerlights? Only problem is my opponents seem to not like them. generally these poor 'la end up poorly deployed. and running around in circles while being shot to bits. Live and learn. Well... I live. They die horribly. Oh, and lets not forget they come with...Dedicated Transport (which they will never use): Devilfish w/ Disruption Pod (85 Points)-Hopefully this will be full of firewarriors, then staying the #3!! away from the Necrons, crashing (probably) into an objective come turn 5.

Fast Attack 2: Piranha: Fusion Blaster, 2 Seeker missiles, Disruption Pod (90 Points)-I fully expect this to burn and die in a torrent of Gauss blasts. As an open topped skimmer, glances can destroy me. But I just painted it, I love the model, so +^&% it, it's going in the list.

Heavy Support 1: XV88 Shas'ui Team Leader w/ twin Linked Plasma Rifles, Advanced Stabilization System, HW Multi-tracker, HW Drone Controller, Shield Drone (115 points)-Past few times I have used this unit it was without the ASS (too easy to make a joke here), as a result, like the Pathfinders he spends the game angling for a shot, and never actually shooting. So my Broadside went out and got himself some... wait for it... Advanced Stabilization System. Hopefully he will keep it covered. Or it will get shot off. Which would be a pain in the... ok, I will stop now.

So I still have some points to play with, which will probably be a Shield drone for the Shas'el, perhaps a few more vehical upgrades. I know this list is not optimized for taking on Necrons (tho it kicks Grey knights shiny, over priced backsides) and those 3 squads of Warriors are gonna give me fits, but it's what I have, so on the table it goes.

As for painting I tend to have a dozen projects going at once, all in various stages of completion, which is why only about half my Firewarriors and Kroot are done-ish, my Hammerhead still needs some lovein, and my Broadside has patches of greenstuff all over him.

The gaming world was stunned today as 40k Radio has announced that Scott and Chipley have been kicked off the show.

Evidently Spencer is the boss over at 40k Radio and according to the forums it was his decision to kick them off the show for not playing enough 40K. His argument was that the two had not played a game of 40K in six months and he wants hosts on the show that play the game regularly. Spencer slammed them with an ultimatum. In his words...

"Shit or get off the pot."

Ouch.

I got one question though...

Since when do you have to actually "play" a game to be knowledgeable or experienced at it?

I'll use myself as an example.

I think I've played a total of twenty or so games of 40k in my entire life over a span of about fourteen years. My first game was at a mall in Phoenix Arizona back when second edition was around. After that I bought the boxed set when third edition hit, played it once and didn't play again until 3 years later when fourth was out. I bought a Necron Army, played about fives games with it and sold the army on ebay for more than I bought it for (I had painted the army). A few years after that I got into it again with Tau at the tail end of forth and...

See the trend?

Now during that span I had always kept up with rules changes, watched games at game stores, got into conversations with players, read forums and kept a watchful eye on the Games Workshop website. Just because I wasn't playing the game regularly did that ever mean I wasn't able to talk intelligently about it?

Lets face it. 40K is a hard thing to get into in the first place and it's an even harder thing to maintain. This is not just a game, it's a hobby and to a lot of peeps, a way of life. The headway to get into this game alone is enough to scare off most people from playing it. When I'm on full blast with 40k I don't really do anything else hobby wise because putting models together, painting em up and reading rules and codices takes a ton of time.

I don't get it. Scott and Chipley obviously had the experience to do what they were doing. Chipley even had his "Newbie Corner" segment that was informative and entertaining. This move seems like cutting your nose off to spite your buddies.

That's right I said buddies!

I always got the impression when I listened to the show that this was a tight nit gaming group that had decided to do a podcast cuz it would be fun. They appeared to enjoy one another, riff on each other in good fun and produced an awesome, informative and funny show. Now because you want to be "the best" you kick two guys off the team that had helped you get the show to where it is now? You just don't do that to your buddies. Some things are way more important than a blog or podcast or (dare I say it) your gaming.

What Spencer just did is like if I told Opie-Wan and JubieX that I didn't want them on my blog for whatever reason. Who gives a damn if they've been my friends for fifteen years. These jerks are getting in the way of my blogs vision!

See just how ridiculous that sounds?

Now there is this whole mess Spencer has to clean up right before his audience. Instead of hearing about gaming in the next show we probably get to hear the whole thing played out again, a ton of justifiable claims and Spencer saying that this move is for the best for his vision or direction or whatever.

You know what? There isn't going to be a "next" show for me. I'm done. I was endorsing 40K radio on my blog but after I got wind of this I removed it. I'm so tired of gamers, GAMERS, acting like jerks to each other and this has jerk stink all over it.

You never roll over on people just because you want to be "the best." Much less your friends. Geeze, Scott just had a kid for crying out loud. Nice going Spencer, you kicked off a guy who hasn't played 40K in six months, who just had a kid. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see he's been a tad busy over the past, um... nine months.

Thank goodness for "Minions Of The Monster Master." These are some good guys right there.

Hell, maybe Me, Opie-Wan and JubieX will start up our own podcast.

I feel bad for Scott and Chipley. For them to just decline everything in the face of Spencers "ultimatum" just tells you that this went over bad.

At least Spencer is willing to say that "He is the problem" in the whole FUBAR situation. Only I wonder what this will do to their listeners?

Do you really want to listen to a show that dumps on people like this?

Now as a way of disclaimer I could be totally off and if I am I offer my sincerest apologies to Spencer and 40K radio. However when you go and read the forums about all this gamer drama I think you'll find I'm not far off the mark.

This guys obituary credits him with defining the look of "Sword and Sorcery" with his Conan renderings. Man did he. I love his gritty take on Conan and his signature shapely women. You really felt like you were staring off into another world when you gazed upon his art. What impressed me all the more is he did covers for EC. You know EC Comics right? The guys who brought us 'Tales From The Crypt?"

As I did research into this little posting I felt really bad about the guy. During his last days his own son broke in to his art museum and stole his own fathers paintings!

WTF!

How do you rip off your old, ailing, dementia suffering dad of the work that made him famous and provided you with a living for your whole damn life (probably)? Dude, that is despicable. That sucks Frank Frazetta had to deal with that kind of bullshit so close to his death.

I've posted a bunch of links to his stuff below. Lets all pause for a moment of silence while we check out this guys amazing work.

So long Frank Frazetta. Thanks for being a pioneer that not only envisioned just what "Sword and Sorcery" is but for working to shape all our minds to picture our own fantasy endevors with your images.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Opie-Wan went out with me the other day to help me decide on a new army. Now I'm not giving up on my Imperial Guard and I'm not selling anything (except the Eldar... more on that in a future post. Man did I screw them up). Since I'm about top make a vow not to play 40K again with an unpainted army (a vow I will take only after one more game or JubieX and Opie-Wan will kill me) I needed an army that painted up quick and fast. My Guard unfortunately are not painting up as quick as I would have liked. I could have changed their color scheme only I really like the classic Cadian uniform. They look fantastic and I've decided to really take my time with em.

So that leaves me with no choice but to go get a new army.

We tossed around Tyranids and Space Marines. We even thought about me doing an entire mechanized list for the Guard. Any one of those choices would have painted up quick (minus the Guard which is why we ruled em out early). My standard for this project was my old Blood Angels Army since I knocked out a 1000 points of them in just three days time.

With the Tyranids out since I really have no idea how to play em and Space Marines out because we could really benefit from a non Imperial army, we settled on the very first army I ever did...

NECRONS!

When I did Necrons the first time around I did the whole black primer, drybrush metal thing. I even gave em a nice flesh wash to make em look dirty with another drybrush coat of metal on top of that. They painted up quick, looked fantastic and were the perfect army to get me into 40K.

I got their Plate Mail Metal spray on the way from the good 'ol War Store and I can't wait to get at em. I'm not too sure if I'm gonna go for the clean new look or if I'm going to dip them in strong tone to see if that is a good way to make them look dirty like they do in the codex.

Either way I have no doubt I should be able to get them done in about three days time (maybe even quicker).

Below is my Necron army list thus far. JubieX wanted us to do a 1030 point battle (poor dude has to do some serious point kung-fu to get his force just right... damned old Daemonhunter codex).

HQ: Necron Lord with a Destroyer Body and a Phylactery- 145 points

TROOPS: Necron Warriors x30- 540 points

FAST ATTACK: Destroyers x3- 150 points

Scarab Swarms x8 with Disruption Fields- 128 points

HEAVY SUPPORT: Heavy Destroyer- 65 points

Army Total: 1028 points

With everything in the army contributing to the Phase Out rule (minus the Scarab Swarms) I'm pretty confident I'm not going to have to worry about that. 25% of my 35 troops is 8.75 and since I have to round up my opponent has to get rid of 26 Necrons to force Phase Out. Each of those 26 troops gets to use the We'll Be Back rule on top of that. Now unless they get doinked by a close combat weapon that denies armor saves or they get smacked with a strength 8 to 10 weapon (8 for troops, 10 for the everything else, minus the Scarabs again of course) their going to get their attempt. I'm bound to role a 4,5 or 6 in 21 dice. They should be just fine.

My force is lacking some really nice anti-armor punch though. The Heavy Destroyer is the only model capable of dealing any kind of penetrating hit on something truly nasty (like a Land Raider or a Hammerhead. Guess who he'll be chasing after?). However everything is capable of causing glancing hits which is enough to put a kink in anyones slinky. The Scarab Swarms have been outfitted with Disruption Fields which makes them jetbiking Gauss Flayers. I can even break em up into two squads and send em out tank hunting. It's a good bet I'll be able to get at least one 6 in the 16 dice they'll roll against the armor.

Man it feels good to be playing these undead robots again. Their simplicity and ease of painting is pretty cool and damned refreshing.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

So without any more futher excuses here are your Top 5 Blogs That Need Followers!!! (#3)

The Ravens ClawThis guys work is amazing! Clearly this is a hobbyist that has artistic talent. It's also cool to see someone do Orks (and do em right). This is all on top of a beautifully designed blog.

Stahley's Paint StationHere is another painter that is just that... a painter. His Eldar are outstanding. The straight lines on the grav tank is evident of the high standards this gamer works to achieve.

FishyPrideHere is a gamer that is after my own heart. He's got tons of armies, a lot of vision and has a hard time painting!

FOR RUSS AND THE ALLFATHERIf you dig battle reports this guys has a bunch of em. As you can guess from the name, we got Space Wolves here!

So that closes out yet another week of blogs that you really should be looking at (but for some reason, aren't). I gotta jet. Sorry for the quick one this week but I got my wife yelling at me to hurry up (I'm doomed tonight to watch a chick flick).

Sigh... Mother's Day.

REMEMBER...

DON'T BE A LEADER,

BE A FOLLOWER!!!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Opie-Wan's Tau force and Jubie-X's Daemonhunters converged last night to fight a very unique game of 40K. Since I was gonna sit this one out (I was in a ton of pain last night) they grabbed my Imperial Guard Sergeants to use as objective tokens in a game that proved the battle for illegal immigration has even reached itself into the 41st millennium!

The back story is simple...

Imperial Guard troops are trying to defect over to the Tau. However their journey towards the greater good is met with the ire of the Imperium's Inquisition who are hell bent on making examples of these traitors!

It proves to be a no-holds-bard match up. Will the Imperial Guard Sergeants easily migrate over to the Tau or will their former comrades eradicate them for their treachery? We got Dawn of War in the scenario as an added monkey wrench to both sides plans.

Only some skill, tactics and dice will determine. With me as the photo bitch we will begin!

Props goes to Opie-Wan for witting up this battle report for the25mmwarrior.com

Grey Knights: Lascannon dreadnought can not see the hammerhead, Jubie X wonders why he didn't take a searchlight. Brother Captain and Stormtrooper squad open fire on Shas'o, stormtrooper puts a wound on Shas'o. First blood to the Grey Knights.

(The stormtrooper squad blasts the Tau leader showing their suped up lasguns are no laughing matter)

Tau: stealh team deep strikes, but scatters too bloody close to the grey knights, and I forgot that I could reroll it due to the Pathfinder Devilfish being in LOS. Hammerhead kills remaining stormtrooper with the Brother-captain with smart missiles, 12 man fire warrior squad rapid firing puts 1 wound on the brother captain, but that's all he has. We all agree that that is silly, but rules is rules, so the brother be dead. The Shas'o reaches out with plasma and missiles, droping 2 stormtroopers from the other squad. Knowing they are in trouble, the stealth team opens up on the grey knights, downing 1 (not enough)

(The desperate firefight of the Stealth Team)

Grey Knights: Still no Serephim. Land raider brings the Broadside down, and another pathfinder. Grey Knights fire at the stealth team, doing 5 wounds, but only 1 failed save. Unfortunately for the stealth team the one failed save was not the guy who put them in charge reach of the grey knights. The grey knights charge, killing another stealth suit, causing the stealth remaining Shas'ui team leader and marker drone to flee, jumping 11 inches away from the knights.

(The Grey Knight are having trouble inflicting the kind of casualties the Tau have been hammering on them)

Table at the end of turn 3

•Turn 4. Dang, that's alot of beer, I better slow down, I work in the morning.

Tau: Flanking kroot arrive and move into cover near one of the objectives. Stealth suit regroups and runs for cover along with the remaining pathfinders, trying to get clear of the Landraider. The Hammerhead immobilizes the Lascannon dreadnought, and the Shas'o continues to send anti-tank fire into the stormtroopers, blowing another 2 to bits.

(Tau Fire warriors enjoy the tactical advantage of being in an elevated position)

Grey Knights: Seraphim will show on a 2+! No problem, right? Of course not, when do women ever do what you want? Next the Land raider moves to melta range of the devil fish; and rolls a 1. So the Melta-dread(John Mclain... named this because he never dies) fires at the devilfish... and rolls a 1. Stormtroopers launch a grenade into the firewarriors moving to claim the central objective, killing 1, the Las-dread repays the Hammerhead, immobilising it. The Grey knights take the free 6 inch move and assault the gundrones, easly killing them, consolidating into the central ruins. I need a beer.

(Just one of Jubie X's many "Ones" that he rolled)

Table at the end of Turn 4

•Turn 5, beer 4... you can still fight when your drunk!

Tau: Stealth suit pops out and calls in a seeker strike against the GK, killing 1. Shas'o Pwan Kanopie jumps in close, plasma cutting through armor, killing 2 more. Then the smart missles from the Hammerhead bring down the Justicar. Fire warriors scramble up the ruins as fast as possible to get to the objective.

(Tau Warriors desperately climb up the ruined building to their prize while their tanks give some much need suppressive fire below)

Grey Knights: Serephim finaly show, and pull a perfect deep strike to contest the objective, knights can now pull a draw if they can kill the fire warriors holding the central objective. The las-dread fries a couple of kroot, every thing else in range opens up on the Fire warriors, who are fairly exposed, killing 7. They make their morale check however, and stay true to the greater good.

(The Sisters show up right next to their target)

Table at the end of turn 5

•Turn 6... beer 5... The 25mm Warrior rolls to see if he game continues and rolls a 4. The battle rages on!

Tau: Devilfish downs one of the remaining stormtroopers. The Hammerhead fires at the landraider, immobilising it, but not stopping it from unleashing hell on the remaining firewarriors. It also reaches out with it's smart missles dropping a serephim, along with the Shas'o frying another, leaving 3 for the Kroot to deal with. 10 Kroot vs 3 girls, no problem right? These are the kroot who went toe to toe with a dreadnought for 3 rounds! These are the kroot who got charged by a unit of Terminators and cracked them like a tin of sardines! Yea. The girls kicked their stripey backsides. Out of 24 attacks hitting on 4 and wounding on 3 I got 1 lousy unsaved wound. Mathhammer can suck it till it turns purple. Anyways, kroot fail their morale save, and get killed by the 2 remaining seraphim, leaving me only in control of 1 objective, not looking so good all of the sudden.

(Confindent of their numbers, Tiger Kroot engage the Women of The Emperor)(...and get their asses handed to em)

Grey Knights: with nothing else much to shoot at the Las-dread unloads on the Shas'o, a krack missile finding it's mark and insta-killing the Shas. The landraider fires everything at the 6 shas'la holding the objective, killing 5. The last shot, a multi-melta, hit the last remaining model, the Shas'ui team leader, and needed a 1 to fry him, and draw the game... and Scott rolls another 1. The doughy Shas'ui makes him morale check, and stands his ground, keeping controll of the objective.

(A lone Tau stands victorious in the face of some heavy fire and claims the traitor guardsmen for THE GREATER GOOD!)

(The die that decided the game... tough break Jubie X)

•Game ends. Tau 1 objective, Grey Knights 0 objectives.

Analisis (Opie-Wan): Amazing how the game can turn on a dime. I went from being in a very strong position at the top of turn 5, controlling 2 of the 3 objectives, with most of his troops melted into mooshy piles of super- heated ceremite, to 1 guy barely holding the middle objective and nothing else, at the bottom of turn 6. While I had some pretty bad luck with rolling, Jubie X had worse, so I can't complain too much there. I once again blew the deployment of my pathfinders and broadsides, and then later the stealth marker team, practacly giving the knights free shots.Broadsides need to deploy centrally, with clear lines of sight. Not. Behind. A. Frelling. Building. He did soak a fair amound of fire tho. Same story with the pathfinders, I ran them around a bunch and acomplished exatly squat, except catch bullets. If the game had gone to turn 7 it would of at least been a draw, with possibly even the knights squeaking a win (he had a single stormtrooper left)

Analisis (The 25mm Warrior): Man Jubie X had a rough time with all those damn one's he rolled. Amazing how you can have a good force with good deployment and yet loose due to the dies. I love it when games come down to just one decisive action and as fate would have it Opie-Wan walked away with the win

Jubie X's army really shines in the end game. In the past two games it has happened where he pulls from a seemingly smashing defeat to where he is only allowing the enemy to walk away with a marginal victory. I think this is awesome since he is a new player. If the dice had been just a bit different or the game went on for another turn the battle would have been much different.

I dread the day his dice line up with the Emperors Will

Monday, May 3, 2010

I got to admit I'm in a bit of a painting rut. My Guard army looks daunting and since I can do any army I want I tend to want to do all of em. Right now I'm just sitting on Guard, Orks, Eldar and Space Marines and it feels like the sheer numbers are sucking the drive to paint right out of me.

So I'm gonna paint some terrain, bide my time while I figure out what to do.

And man... do I have a lot of terrain too.

I bought the Zuzzy Textured Terrain Game Mat a bit ago. Zuzzy had some flubs with their shipping so I got a free 11x14 inch mat along with my 4x6 game mat. In retrospect I'm glad they screwed up the ordering because the good peeps at Zuzzy provided me with a small piece of the larger whole as a way of an apology. Thats just perfect for testing the paint scheme out.

I'm kicking myself that I didn't order that myself.

So I got everything laid out here. The mat I chose was the "The Ruined Land." Just looking at this mat is a bit intimidating as well. The mat is covered with multiple sections of cracked mud, broken trees, rocks and something that looks like mulch on top of the mass broken ground that covers the majority of the mat.How the hell am I supposed to paint all that and make it look good?

I jetted over to a local art/ craft shop for some acrylic paint. Since I wanted this thing to look like a ripped up battlefield (kinda like the fields of WWI) I decided to really keep to strong earth tones. Brown highlighted with a lighter brown followed up with an even lighter brush of Bleached Bone seemed like a good idea.

I started slopping on brown...Then I ran into a problem.

What was I gonna paint the mulch like sections?

Crap.

With nothing left to do I just took the brown and mixed it with the dark gray one to one and hoped.Ok, ok... not bad. At this point I'm not really sure about this choice. Thanks Zuzzy for the screw around mat :)

Next I picked out the rocks with gray to give a bit of contrast.Then I grabbed some Bubonic Brown for the trees. I'm not even sure why I have Bubonic Brown to tell you the truth.Ack! Too yellow. Now I'm really starting to doubt myself. I only got one shot to get it close to right here. I'm gonna be bummed if I mess up my 80 dollar game mat.

Nothing left to do but drybrush that light brown I got...

And thats when it all came together.Wow! What a difference drybrushing makes! I spent some extra time trying to blend in the broken ground sections with the mulch whatever that stuff is sections.

In the end I got this...

The absolute amazing thing here was this only took about 30 minutes to do. I figure a couple of days painting time and the full game mat should be done.

And after this I'm excited to paint it.

This mat is awesome! Once the ground is painted it really does look like the kind of battlefield we all dream of playing on. Zuzzy is a good company too and I really appreciate their willingness to acknowledge an oops and kick something down to the customer as a "hey sorry bro" gesture.

If you want a cool mat that paints up fast and you don't have to be some expert painter or model builder to get it then Zuzzy is an excellent choice.